ultimatepopculturefandomcom-20200216-history
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!
| creator = | starring = | voices = | narrated = Lou Albano | opentheme = "Plumber Rap", performed by Lou Albano and Danny Wells | endtheme = "Do the Mario", performed by Lou Albano | composer = | country = United States | language = English | num_seasons = 1 | num_episodes = 52 (65 live action) | list_episodes = List of Mario television episodes#The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! | runtime = 22 minutes | company = | distributor = Viacom Enterprises | network = First-run syndication | first_aired = | last_aired = | followed_by = The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990) | related = The Legend of Zelda (1989) }} The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! is an American television series based upon Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2. It is the first of three TV shows based on the video game series, with the other being The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World. It was originally broadcast via first-run syndication from September 4, 1989 to December 1, 1989, with reruns continuing until September 6, 1991. The Family Channel picked up the series on September 23, 1991,The Intelligencer – September 23, 1991 and aired it until August 26, 1994.The Intelligencer – August 26, 1994 The show was produced by DiC Animation and was distributed by Viacom Enterprises in association with Nintendo of America. Production Before the series was conceived, Andy Heyward, the then-CEO of DIC Entertainment, spent about a year trying to convince Nintendo to license the characters. In an interview with USA Today, Heyward said "The Mario Bros. is such a unique property we had to do it in a different way...We wanted to do a cartoon but also do a show that extended beyond the cartoon." In February 1989, it was announced that the show would premiere in September 1989. To promote the series, Captain Lou Albano appeared on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee in May 1989 with his beard shaven. When the series first aired, it was distributed by Viacom Enterprises and was marketed by MTV. The opening theme song was composed by Shuki Levy. In David Sheff's book Game Over, Bill White, the then-director of advertising and public relations for Nintendo, said that the purpose of the television series was to "boost awareness of the characters." Format ''Mario Bros. Plumbing'' The first and last parts of each episode were live segments which showed Mario (professional wrestler and manager Captain Lou Albano) and Luigi (Danny Wells), two Italian-American plumbers living in Brooklyn, where they would often be visited by celebrity guest stars. It appears that the live segments take place before Mario and Luigi went to the Mushroom Kingdom. Some of the celebrity guest stars were popular television stars, such as Nedra Volz, Norman Fell, Donna Douglas, Eve Plumb, Vanna White, Jim Lange, Danica McKellar, Nicole Eggert, Clare Carey and Brian Bonsall or professional athletes such as Lyle Alzado and Magic Johnson and WWE (then WWF) stars like Roddy Piper and Sgt. Slaughter. In one episode, Ernie Hudson appeared as a Slimebuster, a parody of his Ghostbusters persona Winston Zeddemore and on another two occasions, Mario and Luigi received visits from Inspector Gadget, performed live by Maurice LaMarche who voiced Chief Quimby in the second season of the show and later went on to voice Gadget himself in Inspector Gadget's Last Case and Gadget & the Gadgetinis. There were also two episodes with Cassandra Peterson as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, but the episodes, as well as the second Gadget appearance and a few other episodes, were not included in the Shout Factory DVDs. In an interview for the first DVD release of the show, Lou Albano talked about filming these live action skits, which mainly involved him and Wells getting a central plot and mostly improvising the dialogue as they went along. In one episode, Lou Albano portrays himself, forcing his regular character to leave the scene in order for him to return as himself. In the episode in question, pop star Cyndi Lauper states she's looking for Lou Albano because he's missing, due to the note she got from him (although there is an important part missing from the note). Mario exclaims how much he wants to meet Lou, and later Lou appears as himself supposedly while Mario's out shopping for pizza. As a result, Luigi gets to meet Lou, but Mario does not. Lou Albano and Danny Wells also twice played female versions of themselves, cousin Marianne, mama Mario, cousin Luigeena and aunt Luigeena. , and also two hillbilly cousins, named Mario Joe and Luigi Bob. ''Super Mario Bros. Each ''Super Mario Bros. cartoon served as the second segment of every show, following the introduction and first few minutes of the episode's live-action segment. The cartoon featured characters and situations based upon the NES games Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2, as well as several sound effects and musical cues from the two games. Each episode featured Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool defending the Mushroom Kingdom from the reptilian villain King Koopa, often in a movie or pop-culture parody. Getting into the spirit of these parodies, Koopa often used alter egos fitting the current theme, but Koopa sometimes goes without an alter ego in some episodes. The theme song for the cartoon segments revealed that the Super Mario Brothers were accidentally warped into the Mushroom Kingdom while working on a bathtub drain in Brooklyn. After traveling via the warp drain, the Super Mario Brothers defeated King Koopa's Koopa Troopas, saved Princess Toadstool and halted Koopa's plan to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom. At the beginning of every cartoon segment, Mario recites an entry into his "Plumber's Log", a parody of the Captain's Log from Star Trek. When Mario and Luigi are in danger, they often do their patty-cake routine: "Patty-cake, Patty-cake, Pasta-Man! Gimme Pasta power as fast as you can!" There were a few blunders with the animation and production of the show. The Star power up in the Mario Bros games grants invincibility, but in the Show it gives them the same effect as the fire flower. This blunder even appears in the shows opening. In the Episode "Quest for Pizza" after Luigi turns the square wheels into round wheels of the Caveman car, on the next scene if you look closely, the wheels are square again, though it is very brief and the scene only lasts about a second. The Super Mario Bros. cartoons aired four days a week, from Monday through Thursday. ''The Legend of Zelda'' On every Friday episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, a cartoon based on The Legend of Zelda video game series was featured instead of the Super Mario Bros. cartoons. In the series, the Hylian hero Link and Princess Zelda battled against the forces of the evil wizard Ganon. Scenes from each episode of the show were shown during the sitcom segments on the preceding Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episodes during the week, and then broadcast as sneak peeks. The Zelda cartoons consisted of thirteen episodes, which ended when the Super Mario Bros. Super Show! ended its initial broadcast run. The characters of Link, Zelda and Ganon, along with their respective voice actors (Jonathan Potts, Cynthia Preston and Len Carlson), were later featured in episodes of Captain N: The Game Master, based on the Zelda II: The Adventure of Link NES game, another animated series based on NES video games, and also produced by DiC Animation around the same period, airing on NBC as part of its Saturday morning cartoon schedule. ''Club Mario'' In the 1990–91 season after the original animated series had ended, the Albano/Wells live-action sequences were replaced on September 10, 1990 with new continuity under the title Club Mario. The Super Mario Bros. cartoons (as well as The Legend of Zelda on Fridays) remained intact but the live-action format now featured Mario-obsessed teenagers Tommy and Tammy Treehugger, along with Cool MC "commandeering" the "satellite signal" of the Super Show using a satellite dish atop their apartment building (despite the reality of the show going out on tapes to stations well in advance), goofing around, and in at least one episode, running around the studio and harassing DiC executive and executive producer Andy Heyward. Cool MC also had to deal with his evil twin Eric (played by the same actor), who attempted fruitlessly to take over the show. An additional added segment was a one-to-two-minute viewing of Space Scout Theater/''Spaced Out Theater'', hosted by Princess Centauri, a green alien woman, which was sourced and edited from the science fiction children television series Photon. The segments had an unpopular reception and further distribution of the series after the 1990–91 season has featured only the original cut of the show with the Albano/Wells live-action sequences. ''Mario All Stars'' In 1993, The Family Channel aired the show in a package named Mario All Stars, consisting of time compressed versions of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! cartoon segments and the ''Super Mario World'' cartoons. It ran for 39 episodes in double episode format, and was promoted as "the Super Mario Bros. in 40 brand new adventures". Although clips from [[The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3|the Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoons]] were used in promos for the show, none of the show's episodes were featured. All Stars was later seen on the USA Network from January 6 – June 6, 1997, when it was replaced by Sonic the Hedgehog reruns. Before being re-edited for All Stars in 1993, Family Channel played the episodes slower than their normal speed and included the live action segments. The package's title is most likely inspired by the title of the video game compilation Super Mario All-Stars that was released the previous year. Songs Theme songs * "Plumber Rap" (Lou Albano and Danny Wells): The main theme, which is divided into two parts. The first part opens the show while the second part opens the Super Mario Bros. animated segments. * "Do the Mario" (Lou Albano): The ending theme to the show performed in front of a greenscreen of the animated show's backgrounds, which featured an accompanying dance performed by Albano described within the lyrics. The song is sung to the tune of the classic "Overworld" theme from Super Mario Bros. Featured songs At some point in the cartoon segments, a song would be played to go along with the scene. These were usually notable singles from famous singers, songwriters, and musical artists of the era. When the program was re-released on DVD in North America, the songs were replaced by instrumentals of songs from The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and one song from Super Mario World. Episode/song combinations are shown on the list of Mario television episodes. Cast ''Super Mario Bros.'' cast *"Captain" Lou Albano as Mario (live-action and animated) *Danny Wells as Luigi (live-action and animated) *Jeannie Elias as Princess Toadstool/Princess Peach (animated segments) *John Stocker as Toad *Harvey Atkin as King Koopa *Maurice LaMarche as Inspector Gadget (live action segments) Additional voices *Robert Bockstael *Dorian Joe Clark *Robert Cowan *Diane Fabian *Paulina Gillis *Joyce Gordon *Marilyn Lightstone *Marla Lukofsky *Greg Morton *Steve Schirrinall *Greg Swanson *Ron Rubin *Keith Knight ''The Legend of Zelda'' cast * Jonathan Potts as Link * Cyndy Preston as Princess Zelda * Len Carlson as Ganon * Colin Fox as King Harkinian * Allen Stewart-Coates as The Triforce of Power * Elizabeth Hanna as The Triforce of Wisdom * Paulina Gillis as Spryte Additional voices *Don Francks *Marvin Goldhar *Christopher Ward ''Club Mario'' cast * Chris Coombs as Tommy Treehugger * Michael Anthony Rawlins as Co-MC/Evil Eric * Kurt Weldon as Dr. Know-It-All * Victoria Delaney as Tammy Treehugger * Jeff Rose as The Big Kid * James Abbott as The Band * Shanti Kahn as Princess Centauri * Andy Heyward as himself Reception Upon the series premiere on September 1989, Mike Hughes of USA Today described the series as a "surprising disappointment", opening that the series has "little of the wit and spark" and relies too heavily on slapstick. In a retrospective review for the series' DVD, Mark Bozon of IGN referred the series as "the biggest offender among Nintendo's many embarrassing moments" but thought that the animated shorts were "interesting to look back on". Bozon gave the overall series a 7 out of 10 (while giving the DVD itself a 5 out of 10). However, Common Sense Media rated the show 1 out of 5 stars, stating that the "frenetic '80s cult fave with stereotypes hasn't aged well." Ratings Upon the first week of its premiere, the series had a cumulative 4.1/12 rating/share, making the series the highest rated first-run syndicated series at the time. However, within the next two weeks, the series (3.8/11) was beat out by Buena Vista Television's Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (4.5/11) and faced competition with Claster Television's Muppet Babies reruns. Home video releases From 1989 to 1990, Kids Klassics (with the sponsorship of Nesquik) released episodes of the series on VHS. Starting in 1991, Kids Klassics' parent company GoodTimes Entertainment continued releasing episodes on VHS up through 1993. 1989 Releases (Each volume begins and ends with a complete live-action segment, with the featured complete animated segment in the middle) * Mario's Magic Carpet * Mario Meets Koop-zilla * King Mario of Cramalot * The Great Gladiator Gig * Butch Mario & the Luigi Kid * The Great BMX Race * The Ringer (The Legend of Zelda) * Sing for the Unicorn (The Legend of Zelda) There were also 3 VHS tapes only available through a mail-in offer with Nestle Quik. They follow the same format as the volumes listed above. * The Bird! The Bird! * Pirates of the Koopa * Kiss'N Tell (The Legend of Zelda) 1990 Releases (Each volume has 1 complete live action segment and 3 complete animated segments) * Koopa Claus (plus "Santa Claus Is Coming to Flatbush", "Stars in Their Eyes", and "Too Hot to Handle") * Count Koopula (plus "Vampire Until Ready", "Koopenstein", and "Robo Koopa") * The Missing Link [The Legend of Zelda] (plus "Captain Lou Is Missing", "Cold Spells", and "The Moblins Are Revolting") * Princess, I Shrunk The Mario Brothers (plus "Rowdy Roddy's Rotten Pipes", "Rollin' Down The River", and "Brooklyn Bound") 1991 Releases (The Kids Klassics logo is retained although these volumes were released by GoodTimes) (Each volume has 4 complete animated segments and no live-action segments) * Two Plumbers and a Baby (plus "On Her Majesty's Sewer Service", "The Great Gold Coin Rush", and "Flatbush Koopa") * Robo Koopa (plus "Bad Rap", "Karate Koopa", and "The Koopas Are Coming! "The Koopas Are Coming!") * Hooded Robin and His Mario Men (Plus "Plummers Academy", "Quest for Pizza", and "Escape from Koopatraz") 1993 Release (Released in a clamshell packaging, contains 6 complete animated sgements and no live-action segments) * Super Mario Bros. Super Show ("Jungle Fever", "Mario and the Beanstalk", "20,000 Koopas Under the Sea", "Mario of the Apes", "Mario of the Deep", and "King Mario of Cramalot") In 1996, the animated segment "Koopa Klaus" and the live-action segment "Santa Claus is Coming to Flatbush" were included on the VHS release Super Mario Bros. Super Christmas Adventures, alongside the Super Mario World episode "The Night Before Cave Christmas". In 2006, Shout! Factory and Sony BMG Music Entertainment released the series on two 4-disc DVD sets. These two sets were discontinued in 2012 after Shout!'s deal with Cookie Jar Entertainment expired. Notably, a bare bones "Best of" DVD was released by DiC and Lions Gate Entertainment. In 2012 NCircle Entertainment released the complete series to DVD across two sets with the same extras as the Shout! Factory sets, but with the live-action segments omitted and "On Her Majesty's Sewer Service" excluded. UK VHS history *''Abbey Home Media'' (1991–1993) From 1991 to 1993, Abbey Home Entertainment Distribution released six videos of the "Super Mario Bros. Super Show" with the only animated segmented episodes, the animated segmented intro and the live-action segment of "Do the Mario" in the closing credits. DVD Releases References External links * * Category:1989 American television series debuts Category:1989 American television series endings Category:1980s American animated television series Category:Animated series based on Mario Category:Animated series based on video games Category:English-language television programs Category:First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Category:Works based on Mario Category:American children's animated action television series Category:American children's animated adventure television series Category:American children's animated comedy television series Category:American children's animated fantasy television series Category:Animated adventure television series Category:Animated fantasy television series Category:Television series about siblings Category:Television series by DIC Entertainment Category:Television series by CBS Television Studios Category:American animated television spin-offs Category:Animated duos Category:American television series with live action and animation Category:Works based on Nintendo video games Category:Television series by Saban Entertainment